Super PLAY

Super PLAY (often abbreviated SP) was a Swedish video game magazine. Started in March 1993 with the name Super Power, it was the first independent video game magazine in Sweden. Despite its independence, it initially only covered Nintendo games, but the coverage was extended to all major consoles in 1995. The name was changed in March 1996, and in June 2001 the magazine started covering PC games. Its monthly circulation was in 2003 25,000 . The editor in chief until November 2004 was Tobias Bjarneby, who left along with a large segment of the staff to form the new magazine Reset (which later merged with the magazine Player 1 to form LEVEL). The last editor in chief was Joakim Bennet, who succeeded Tommy Rydling in mid-2007.

On 17 August 2009, Joakim Bennet announced that the magazine will be disestablished within a near future. The last number was released in October 2009. The last number was dedicated to earlier versions of the magazine, which almost the entire magazine including a behind the scenes and quotes from various numbers from all years. Also was an exclusive script describing the change from Super POWER to Super PLAY, which apparently was supposed to be called simply "Play", and the reviews all having the same layout from previous versions of the magazine, in addition to comments from the readers and exact same ads as previous versions, obviously outdated by then. Notoriously, the review of the PlayStation 3 game Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the only one based on the layout used 1996-99 and had a yellow stripe, which was the color used by reviews on games from the original PlayStation.

Super Play

Super Play (スーパープレィ) was a British Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) magazine which ran from November 1992 to September 1996.

Overview

Super Play covered in great detail the role-playing video game genre. Many of these games were never released officially in the UK or European games market, and therefore the magazine concentrated much effort in covering aspects of the American, and moreover the Japanese games markets.

It also featured in-depth, intelligent and passionate coverage of all aspects of gaming. Given the close ties between the world of Japanese console RPGs and animation, the magazine also heavily featured information about manga and anime by noted UK based writer, Helen McCarthy. It can be said that Super Play was one of the magazines that helped to push forward what was at the time a nascent market for anime in the UK. In this vein, the magazine itself was also notable as its cover illustrations (and many illustrations between the covers) were done in manga-influenced style by artist Wil Overton. Overton also caricatured many of the staff in chibi form, wearing various types of anime-related costumes - sci-fi armour, flying gear, RPG-style armour etc. The cover even had the name "Super Play" written in katakana.